Tickets are $32 at the gate today through Sunday. Seniors (60 and older) pay $21 at the gate for any day. A season badge, good for the entire week, is $120. You may also buy tickets online, at a lower rate, by going to the tournament Web site, www.farmersinsuranceopen.com/tickets.

Military members and dependents will be admitted free with a current Department of Defense identification card. Military personnel and their immediate families also will have free access to the Military Appreciation Pavilion, located next to the 14th green on the South Course. The pavilion is open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday through Sunday.

Field

This year’s field will consist of 156 players. Each player will play a round on the North and South courses Thursday and Friday. After the Friday cut to the low 70 players and ties, all play will be on the South Course.

Prize money

The tournament purse is $5.8 million, up $500,000 from last year. First place will be worth $1,044,000. Both amounts are records for the tournament.

Parking

Parking is free today at the Glider Port adjacent to the South Course.

Beginning Thursday, fans may park at the Del Mar Show Park or Qualcomm Stadium and take the shuttle. Shuttle lot parking is $20 per vehicle for round-trip service, which runs from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

This week’s PGA tournament at Torrey Pines Golf Course will make an estimated $2 million to benefit dozens of local schools and charities.

How much will the city of San Diego receive for the use of its world-famous course?

Not enough to cover its expenses.

The city expects to lose $200,000 on the Farmers Insurance Open, stemming from unrecouped greens fees, staff overtime and turf maintenance costs. That’s almost 45 percent of its $450,000 investment.

“It was a compromise,” said Jay Goldstone, the city’s chief operating officer and the one who negotiated this year’s the contract with the event host, the nonprofit Century Club of San Diego. “They did not have enough cash to pay us for full cost recovery. … And there are a number of indirect benefits (to the city).”

Supporters of the city’s financial arrangement tout these benefits, saying the city’s losses are more than paid back with television promotions during the four-day competition and the infusion of an estimated $25 million to $30 million into local tourism. Plus, the Century Club distributes much of the event’s proceeds to charities and college golf programs.

The deal’s detractors say the city cannot afford to offer use of its blufftop course at a loss, especially with its boosted market value following the 2008 U.S. Open. Most of the losses flow from the city’s self-supported golf enterprise fund and not the city’s general fund, which pays for basic services such as police and fire protection and libraries.

But some question whether it’s right for golf course users to essentially cover the city’s losses.

“The city has serious financial problems, and I don’t understand why it’s subsidizing charities,” said Paul Spiegelman, co-founder of the San Diego Municipal Golfers Alliance, a group formed to preserve the city’s courses for ordinary golfers. “If they’re charging under market for renting the course, and inconveniencing local golfers by closing the course, the charity ought to start after they’ve made up their losses.”

The PGA event, formerly called the Buick Invitational, has been a money-losing endeavor for the city since it was first hosted by the Century Club at Torrey Pines more than four decades ago.

Originally the city paid the Century Club — a group of 75 of San Diego County’s elite, including attorneys, doctors and media executives — for its tournament expenses. Then in the 1980s, when the city ran into budget problems, it started charging for some of the lost greens fees.

Goldstone said the city’s reimbursement this year will be the highest ever, 14 percent more than last year.

He said that he eventually wants to recover all the city’s costs but that seeking any more this year “would put too great a strain” on the host.

So how is it possible that the Century Club can distribute more than $2 million to charities each year but not afford to pay the city $450,000?

The club has structured its fundraising so that virtually all proceeds benefit charities directly, leaving it with little cash on hand. In tax returns the organization filed last year, it reported revenue and expenses in excess of $14 million, yet ended the year with net assets of $139,000.